Shower utility bag



Jan. 22, 1963 BRIDGES 3,074,452

SHOWER UTILITY BAG Filed 001;- 27, 1961 INVENTOR. 6201 25514 BIB/0656'.

3,074,452 SHOWER UTILITY BAG George A. Bridges, 1432 Redwood St., Vallejo, Calif. Filed Get. 27, 1961, Ser. No. 148Ji2 1 Claim. (Cl. 1501) My present invention relates to a bath room accessory and more particularly to a utility bag for holding various bath items such as may be required or desired in a tub type shower.

An object of the invention is to provide a utility bag which can be supported upon the enclosing wall of a tub type shower as a means for holding articles such as a hand brush, soap sponge or washcloth in one compartment and an exposed back brush and a bath towel in a dry and protected condition during the showering process.

Another object of the invention is to provide a utility bag of practical design and inexpensive construction which may be securely supported upon the wall or a comparable portion of a shower installation.

Other objects and advantages will be in part evident to those skilled in the art and in part pointed out hereinafter in connection with the accompanying drawing wherein there is shown by Way of illustration and not of limitation a preferred embodiment of the invention.

In the drawing:

FIGURE 1 is a front view showing my invention as constructed in accordance with a preferred embodiment thereof, and

FIGURE 2 is a vertical sectional view taken along line 2-2 of FIGURE 1, looking in direction of arrows.

In the construction of tub showers it is generally the practice to provide a wall-like enclosure of glass or the like with a sliding door through which the tub may be entered which when closed will provide a shower enclosure. These partitions generally stop short of the ceiling of the bath room and form a substantially complete shower enclosure about the tub. With this arrangement the bather is somewhat handicapped because of the inaccessibility of the various bathing implements such as a hand-brush, soap, washcloth or sponge and it is therefore a primary object of my invention to provide a utility bag in which the various accessories may be conveniently located within the shower enclosure. This is an important consideration, in the case of the tub showers, as the tub drain is usually not of a size which will permit the shower water to run Off as fast as it is used. Because of this fact the bather generally finds himself in a tub with three or four inches of water and in order to avoid the necessity of remaining in the tub until the water has completely drained ofi, my utility bag is also designed and adapted to provide for a bath towel so that the bather will be able to start the toweling or drying oft operation without stepping from the tub with wet feet such as would occur should the bather have to step from the shower tub to the bath room proper.

For a more detailed description of the invention, reference is now made to the accompanying drawing wherein the numeral 14 designates generally my improved utility bag. The bag will be constructed of a water proof material and preferably of a transparent or translucent plastic material which should possess a certain degree of stiffness. The bag 10 is suspended as a whole from a supporting bar which is composed of two slats 11 and i2 between which a back wall portion 13 and a front wall portion 14 are clamped and secured by means of rivets 15. Attached to the slat 11 of the back supporting bar, I have shown two rearwardly extending hooks 16 by which the bag may be supported over the tub enclosing wall of the shower as above noted. In this connection it will be noted that one side of the bag it is completely closed along a side 17 which will be determined by the location of the shower head, for example, as here illustrated, the shower head should be located to the left of the bag 1% as viewed in FIGURE 1. The other side of the bag as formed by the back wall 13 and the front wall 14 is left open and the front wall 14 is provided with a flexible loop or tab 18 by which the bather may open the bag 10 along this side for the insertion or extraction of a dry towel therefrom.

Another feature is that the cleat 12 or supporting bar carries a hook 19 upon which a back brush 2% as shown is suspended. Intermediate the top and bottom ends of the back wall 13 there is a horizontal stiffening stay 26 against which the lower edge of the front wall 14 of the bag is secured by rivets 21. At the ends of the stay 20 there are two U-shaped clips 22 which serve as a means for securing an upturned portion of the back wall 13 which as here shown, will form a pocket 23 into which various articles such as soap, hand brush, sponge or washcloth may be held for convenient use by the bather. As noted, the pocket 23 is formed as a continuation of the back wall and is sealed or stitched at its sides to complete the pocket and along its bottom the pocket 23 I also provide a number of openings 24 for drainage.

As indicated and as particularly shown in FIGURE 2 of the drawing the front Wall 14 is of slightly longer dimension than is the encompassed portion of the back wall 14 so that it will bag or sag outwardly and thus allow the back wall 14 of the bag to retain a flat surface against the wall of the shower in which it is used.

While I have, for the sake of clearness and in order to disclose my invention so that the same can be readily understood, described and illustrated a specific form and arrangement I desire to have it understood that this invention is not limited to the specific form disclosed, but may be embodied in other ways that will suggest themselves to persons skilled in the art. It is believed that this invention is new and all such changes as come within the scope of the appended claim are to be considered as part of this invention.

Having thus described my invention what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

A water proof stall shower utility bag, comprising a rectangular bag-like structure of water proof material having an open side for the reception of a dry towel, a rigid horizontally extending supporting bar at the upper end of the open side of said structure, means carried by said supporting bar by which the bag-like structure may be suspended without swinging upon an open top wall of a stall shower, said bag-like structure having a continuous back wall portion secured at its upper end to said supporting bar and being folded outwardly and upwardly at its lower end and secured at the sides of said fold to the back wall portion of said bag-like structure and forming a pocket extending across the lower end of said structure, a reinforcing stay spaced below and extending parallel with said supporting bar and secured to said back 3 i wall portion at the upper edge of the upfolded pocket forming portion of said back wall for retaining the back Wall portion spread and against wrinkling when articles are placed in said pocket, a front wall portion secured to and extending between said supporting bar and said 5 reinforcing stay and secured in water tight contact with said back wall portion along one vertical side and forming an open sided pocket between said supporting bar and said reinforcing stay for holding a dry towel during a showering operation, and means upon said front wall 10 at the open side of said latter pocket to facilitate the insertion and removal of a towel therefrom.

UNITED STATES PATENTS Bedell May 22, Johnston Jan. 26, 'Nilssen Mar. 11, Thornhill Mar. 30, Metzger Sept. 13, ODonovan Mar. 14,

FOREIGN PATENTS Germany July 15, Germany Sept. 11, Great Britain Ian. 7, 

